Spyro: Return To Avalar
by noelm18
Summary: As things back in the Dragon Kingdom quieten down, Spyro and his glowing companion Sparx decide to take a trip back to the Lost Realms to visit Hunter and Bianca. Dealing with missing Elora and the world of Avalar, Spyro is surprised at the turn of events that take place, and we get filled on on things that have happened during the "in between time" of their separation.


Chapter 1: The Great Discovery

~ Nostalgia In Artisan's Word ~

As the sun began to set, he felt coldness in his bones, knowing that just like the happiness that was once in his life, warmth was about to fade into a chilling period of white noise until the morning. Looking up at his floating, glowing companion, Spyro distantly sighed and started to speak a few of his thoughts. "Do you think we will ever get to make it back to Avalar, Sparx?" Sparx, a buzzy yet, insightful little Dragonfly who often had much to chatter about, simply lowered his head and replied with, "(BzzZzzZz) I'm not (bZzz) entirely sure, pal (Bzzz)." Artisan's World had been very quiet, and Spyro was really considering just making a trip back to the Lost Realms to visit Hunter and Bianca. After all, they had just recently met their second child, Eloral, and Spyro and Sparx were yet go visit with her. "What do you say, first thing in the morning, we head back to the Lost Realms for a while? I'm pretty sure that everyone is okay here, for a bit anyways.x The last time we decided to take a vacation, it didn't turn out exactly how we had planned _, but still, I would never trade it for a thing_." Sparx looked at him with a sad little smirk, knowing that he was referring to the time that they met Elora and were basically drafted into defeating Ripto, (a short, angry, dinosaur-like creature who tried to take over the world of Avalar a good five years or so.) "(BzzZzzZz) I sure am ready if you are!" Sparx replied, after not even giving it a second thought. "Good!" Spyro said excitingly. "We'll get ready to leave at the first sign of dawn."

~ Getting to Midday Gardens ~

As they approached the portal to the Lost Realm worlds, Spyro noticed a faint light hovering above the entrance. "Uh oh. This isn't good." He mumbled in a concerned manner. "Sparx, check the activation number to this portal in the Dragon Realm Handbook and make sure that these numbers are right." A few moments had passed of Sparx flipping through pages, and accidentally giving the number for the "Last Realms" instead, finally finding the coordinates to the Lost Realms portal. Nothing. Not a single sound, flash or sign of activation whatsoever. "The portal is down, Sparx!" Spyro said with a sigh of utter disappointment. For those of you who did not grow up within these worlds, it is a dire need to know that there is absolutely nothing more disheartening than being dead-set on going to a specific realm and not being able to access it via portal. It takes quite a while to make it to these worlds by foot, (or by wing, to be totally inclusive), and considering how far away that the Lost Realms were, there was no possible way that Spyro and Sparx could make it there without a portal and still make it feel like a vacation. Instead, it would feel much more like a long, draining, task filled adventure.

They sat there for a moment, wondering if they should bother contacting a technician on such a busy occasion. (The Magic Crafters Play Festival was going on, which was a yearly occurrence that only lasted for three days). After a couple of minutes, Sparx voiced an idea. "Hey, Dream Weavers has a portal that connects directly to Sunrise Spring World!" Spyro's face lit up with excitement, and eyes with pure joy. "I completely forgot about that, Sparx! They never did label that portal, due to the inhabitants of Spooky Swamp not wanting just _anyone_ to use it… but, hey, those little guys would not mind a bit for an old friend or two to use it! The portal will let us out at the double doors right by the exit portal to Midday Gardens!" he stated in realization to the fact that there was hope after all. "What are you waiting for bud, (Bzzz), let's go!" Sparx exclaimed, and they took off in the hot air balloon to the wonderous, floating world of Dream Weavers.

~ Entering Dream Weavers ~

When Spyro and Sparx got off of the balloon, they were surprised at what they were seeing. Cannons were shooting frantically, enemies were dancing around mischievous as ever, and thieves were… well, thieves were thieving. With all of the festivities going on in all corners of Magic Crafters, the trouble causers of the Dream Weavers World were at their heightened peak of excitement. Off ran a blue thief with a pink gem, singing "nah nah nuh nah nah" as he swept right past Spyro, thinking he got away just as the tail of his blue outfit burned with dragon flames. He quickly dropped the gem and scurried away. "Goodness pal, what is going on here? These goofs think that they can just do whatever while Thomas is gone?" Spyro mumbled in frustration as he took off after a few other disruptive foes. The place was filled with chaos, with none of the Dragon Elders stationed there to set order for the citizens. After a couple of hours and a good cleaning up of the mess that had been made, as well as putting several enemies in their place, Spyro and Sparx finally made it to the secret portal which lead to Spooky Swamp. "We should have known that a vacation was not going to be _that_ easy, huh little buddy?" Spyro said to Sparx, as they prepared to glide through the teleportation creation, which finally lead them much closer to their desired destination. Midday Gardens.

~ Arriving At Spooky Swamp? ~

"It sure has been a few extra minutes it seems. Does it usually take this long to get t…" Spyro was quickly interrupted by a ( **SMASH)** , ( **BOOM)** , ( **BANG)** , and an abrupt **drop** … and Sparx began to get dizzy with panic. "(BzzBzzzBzz) I can't (BzzBzz) see (Bzz) a single thing!" he exclaimed, when all of the sudden, everything went _black_.

"My… head… ouch…" Spyro mumbled, gradually opening his left eye, and then proceeding to try and open his right one. "Am I… dreaming…?" he thought to himself as he saw a pair of sparkling blue eyes staring straight through him. This felt all too familiar to Spyro. Almost in the same way that it felt on that night several years ago at Agent 9's Lab, when The Sorceress was defeated and old friends came to congratulate everyone on their newly found safety and freedom. "Spyro? Spyro! Are you okay? Can you… hey, _can you hear me_?" Elora repeated his name over and over as she started brushing his face in a gentle, yet, panicky way. A few seconds had passed, and finally Sparx came to himself and started buzzing around in a panic, which actually seemed to be what really ended up waking Spyro to his fullest. He jumped up, dazed and very confused with a high string of anxiety, scratching his claws into the grass and hyperventilating heavily. "What? Where am I? How did I?" He took a few seconds to take in the view, and understand what was going on around him. "Am I in … _Avalar_?" Elora smiled contently as she came to the realization that Spyro was okay after all. She hugged him tightly as she exclaimed, "yes, yes, yes! You are perfectly fine, Spyro! A minor concussion maybe, but nonetheless, you are _here_ now."

The atmosphere felt simply nostalgic; although he recognized that it was different than the last time this happened, (being sucked into a completely different realm by a half human, half goat person, when trying to do nothing more than go on vacation for a little while). "This is Autumn Plains", he thought to himself. He looked at her, trying to hide his eternal infatuation with her beauty and his ever so obvious deep love for her in his heart. "Wait, are you saying that you _brought me here on purpose_?" he asked inquisitively and very surprised at his own suggestion, even though Elora's particular way of wording basically said it for him. She blushed a little, but shrugged it to not be such a big deal. "Well, you see, the Professor, uhm, he has been teaching me how to, do that thing where, you cross connect portals, uhm, kind of like he did when, well when we _first met_ _ **you**_ _._ " He gave her a one-eyed winking, closed mouth in a straight face sort of way that seemed to say, "I don't really believe you, but I'm nervous as can be and am not going to question it any further." She looked down at her hoofs and continued explaining. "Yeah! It's simple. Nothing more than an equation or two that ends up creating a new code, and when entered at the correct time, _**boom**_ , I guess we get ourselves a dragon." She laughed casually, as he shook his head and laughed too. Sparx floated off into the distance, giving Spyro and Elora some alone time, as Autumn Plains suddenly was filled with warm air and birds happily singing. Everything felt _right_ again.

~ A Better Explanation ~

There were birds flying and leaves falling gently, as the atmosphere filled with the sounds of nature. The sun was still out, and there was plenty of time left for conversation before bedtime rolled around. Spyro noticed that Elora had started getting a little teary eyed, but was trying to not let him see what was going on in her mind. He hesitated to talk for a second, but finally go up the nerve to ask her to go up to the castle's peak. From up there, they could watch the sunset, look at the stars, and discuss everything that had happened since the last time they were able to _really_ sit down and talk. They strolled through the castle, climbing the very same stairs that Spyro had touched with his claws on the day he finally collected enough orbs to open The Professors gate. Memories hit him in the chest like the bittersweet candies Bianca used to make when him and Hunter would get back from practicing archery. He shook it off and tried not to be too distracted by his emotions, for the time being at least.

Once they arrived, there wasn't much time for an awkward silence. The conversation started up and grew serious very quickly. "I tried writing you", Elora said softly. "But every letter I would send just got sent back to me by the guardians of your realm." Spyro gave her a look of disappointment, and shook his head in frustration. He always thought that she simply had no desire to see him. "We have been trying so hard to find a way to get back here, back to Avalar. In fact, Sparx and I were just heading to the Lost Realm to visit Hunter and Bianca so that we could see if they had maybe heard from you or the Professor since last time Hunter wrote to me. Moneybags is living in the Lost Realm now, at Midnight Mountain to be exact, and all I could think about was visiting each of them to see if they had heard from you." Spyro paused for a second, rethinking his decision to speak. "Well, erm, you and of course the Professor, too." He quietly drifted off with his speaking, saddened at the thought that somehow, something was always keeping them apart. It seemed as if there was always some sort of barrier, something holding Spyro back from what he truly wanted to say. The evening drew on, but he felt that pull in his voice again; the one that always kept him from being honest with Elora.

They both took a moment or so to take everything in. Eventually, one of them gathered up the courage to speak again. "I love the Dragon Realm, Elora. You know I do. But I honestly dream every night of getting to live here, in Avalar, _with you_." He wanted to look at her, but knowing that if he did, his love would be too obvious, he just stared at the mountains in the distance and allowed himself to smile. "You've always been my best friend. The one who gets me for who I am, and besides, I really just love it here. It feels like… _home_." Elora smiled excitedly, like the words that were spoken to her came from the most amazing creation there ever was to be. "Since Ripto had entered the Dragon Kingdom, the Guardians simply refused to let Avalar have any form of communication with their realm. It felt like a nightmare. It was almost as if you were never even _real_." Elora shook her head, and a small tear began to form in the corner of her eye. Spyro looked down at his half torn off claw from his last encounter with one of Ripto's minions, sighed, and felt the emotions of disappointment and frustration, both at the same time. "I just wanted to get back to you.. To Autumn Plains, where the leaves fall into the pool and the frogs dance around, hoping I won't turn them into butterflies." He laughed after making his deep, yet humorous statement, signaling Elora to just say something. Anything, really. But there was only silence between the two of them, as the sun continued to set below the mountains. Lost time that was well spent, speaking of days which were well wasted.


End file.
